Shadowglass

No way, luv. I’m not taking it.” Danny folded leathery red arms across his big chest and eyed the squidgy with beady black suspicion. His pointy ears twitched, crusted with dirt and dead skin, and his potbelly poked at his stretched black T-shirt, which read MY ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASS PISSES ME OFF.

Dusty sunlight dribbled in from a wire-covered skylight. My pretty diamonds glinted on black velvet, beside pink pearl strings and a sky-blue opal choker. The squidgy jiggled next to them, littering rust flecks on the velvet. A scaly whisper slithered in my ears, threatening.—Don’t get rid of me. You’ll be sorry.—

I recalled the calming bell-chime voice it used when it liked me, and I shuddered. Just leave me alone, okay?

The squidgy muttered darkly.—Nice friend you are. Fine. You’re on your own. See how you like it.—

And like a raindrop on the wind, the voice was gone.

My heart lightened, cautious. Good riddance. But unease jabbed my spine. I still wanted it out of my sight. I leaned on the dusty glass counter, offering Danny a nice view of my boobs swelling against my halter dress. “Five, then. Not a cent less.”

Danny grinned and scratched coarse orange hair, a goaty stink wafting from his armpit. “It ain’t the price. It’s the smell. It’s yucky. I’m not taking it.”

I wrinkled my nose. He can talk. Danny’s pawnshop is crammed in above a Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Brunswick, a dark den festering with dust and stuffed with moldy carpet rolls and crates of junk, and it stinks of stale cooking oil and spriggan sweat.

In the corner, Ashley rummaged through cardboard cartons, pulling out rusted bike chains, pistol parts, desiccated specimens in jars. Humming. Amusing himself. Ignoring us.

Could use your help here, dude. I scowled at him, but he didn’t see me.

Charlotte smiled her prettiest smile, playing with her dress hem to innocently show off her thighs. “But the diamonds are nice. You like diamonds, Danny. And pearls. And the shimmery blue stuff.”

Danny leered back, broken black teeth sliding up over his lip. “I’ll take all those, darlin’. Just not the stinky round thing. Why’d I get the feeling you’re conning me?”

The squidgy tilted and swerved on the glass, buzzing angrily. I grabbed it and jammed it back onto the velvet. Behave. “Why do I get the feeling you’re ripping us off? Come on, Char. Let’s take our business elsewhere.”

“Fine with me.” Danny tapped chewed yellow claws happily on the counter. “Come back when you don’t get half as much, and we’ll renegotiate.”

He had us, and he knew it. Our scores are high-profile and dangerous, and besides, we’re fairies. Most times no one else will touch us, and if we didn’t get at least four grand for this little lot, our asses were toast. But we had one secret weapon remaining. I raised my voice. “Okay. Whaddaya say, Ash? We go elsewhere?”

This time I got Ashley’s attention. He glanced up, his hands full of broken crystal. “Can I have this? Sorry, what?”

“Danny don’t want our squidgy,” reported Charlotte, her tone thick with righteous indignation.

“That so?” Ashley dumped the crystal with a happy tinkle and sauntered up to the counter.

Danny cleared his throat, black eyes darting. “I’s just sayin to the ladies—”

Ashley licked his ruby lips, a sight you gotta witness to truly understand, and it dried the words in Danny’s mouth. “That a new haircut?”

“Um . . . What?” Danny’s fingers smeared the glass, his flashy golden ring glinting in sunlight.
I stifled a smile. Danny’s okay, for a skanky money-grubbing liar. He’s just got this thing for pretty fae boys. Which makes him quivering jelly in Ashley’s dirty-flirty hands.

You show weakness; we exploit it. That’s what con artists do. Sometimes I feel bad for him, but not today. Today, I wanted him a trembling wreck.

Ash leaned closer, and as if by accident, sparks twinkled from his claws, caressing Danny’s crusty hand. “New haircut. Kinda cute. Anyway. It’s a fine squidgy. Very . . . umm . . . stimulating. Sure we can’t come to some arrangement?”

Danny’s leathery throat bobbed. “Well, I guess I could . . .”

“You guess you could what?” Ashley let his lips drift apart.

Danny squirmed, glancing from the squidgy to Ashley and back again. “Look, I can only take the jewels. It ain’t the money. Just not my bag. Gives me the willies, okay? Sorry.”

Despair weighed like stones in my heart. If even pretty Ash couldn’t talk Danny into it, we were lost. Stuck with this horrible thing. Damn it.

Disappointment built swiftly to careless anger, so abrupt, it scorched my senses and quivered my fingers with hate. I slammed my foot into the counter. Pain crunched into my toes, clawing up my ankle. “Ow! For fuck’s sake.” I kicked again, rage burning deep. The glass cracked like a starfish with a loud crunch, and this time the pain shocked me to silence.

I struggled to calm my breath, to hold my jerking fingers still. I don’t kick things. I just get angry and hot and sulk for a while. But I couldn’t help it. I wanted to crush something small and weak just to watch it hurt. If I’d had a weapon, I might have used it.

Fear crawled along my nerves like a cold centipede. This wasn’t me. Was I going mad?

Squidgy, you still there?

Silence.

Scorn darkened Charlotte’s frown. “Good one, Apples. Break everything. That’ll help.”

My blood seethed. I crunched my fingers tight until my claws bruised my palms, and rage bubbled and munched, leaving me hot and empty inside. Damn squidgy.

Danny backed off, lifting his hands. “Look, you guys need to leave—”

“Not so fast.” Ashley fluttered over the dented counter and parked his cute butt, hooking Danny’s thigh with a shapely ankle. “You never asked about my arrangement.”

His voice seduced, a familiar sultry tone that crawled a shiver down my legs, quenching my rage.

He’d used that one on me this morning. Fuck me, Apples. You know you wanna.

My stomach coiled, discomfort jerking my wings tight. Surely he wouldn’t really . . . Not just for that. He’s got dignity, our Ash. He screws anything that smells good, but on his terms.

Danny flushed a darker red and flicked a wary glance at us girls. “What, um, what’d ya have in mind?”

“I’ll fix your counter,” Ashley suggested coyly, and traced a delicate claw over one of the cracks I’d made. The edges glowed red with fire-fae heat, and glass fused with a steamy hiss, leaving a rippled ridge.

Danny stared, and swallowed, his imagination no doubt leading him to new and tempting places. “Should hope so.”

Ashley beckoned, and when Danny leaned closer, Ashley whispered in his crooked ear, a smile curving his lips.

Danny’s ears curled inward. He dampened his lips with a snaky black tongue. “Oh. Um. Okay.”

His voice was barely audible, and Ashley stared him sultry in the eyes without flinching.

I shifted, squirming. “Ash, you can’t be seri—”

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.” Ashley didn’t drop his gaze. “Fuck it. See ya downstairs.”
Charlotte’s face paled like dawn sky. “Ashley—”

“Save it, Char. You don’t wanna see, leave.” He twisted Danny’s brittle orange hair in his fist, and when Danny dropped to his knees, I grabbed Charlottes’s hand and dragged her toward the stairwell.

On the way down the creaking stairs, my guts writhed like I’d stuffed them with worms. I didn’t want to hear, but I couldn’t help straining my ears. I couldn’t hear anything, and my nerves stretched even tighter.

Charlotte clomped behind me, her hand stiff and cold in mine, and as we squeezed onto the sunset-stained sidewalk, she ripped her hand away and rounded on me, big eyes glimmering emerald with tears. “You shoulda stopped him.”

Her accusation bit me like a horsefly. Tears sprang to my own eyes, my vision glaring cyan in the sun. Ashley is a sweet guy beneath all that vanity. I don’t give a damn whom he does—boys or girls, spriggans or banshees or humans, for all I care—but as far as I know, he’s never prostituted himself before. “I tried to stop him, Char.”

“Shoulda tried harder. He never listens to me. It’s your fault, Apples.”

“Is not!” People sidled past us on the skinny footpath, and I tucked my wings in and tried to keep my voice down below the traffic noise.

“It is too. You’re the negotiator. You shoulda made Danny take our deal.” That infuriating childish lilt crept into her voice.

Ire jabbed like she’d poked me with a pitchfork, but guilt pierced me sharper, all the way to my heart. It was my fault. I’d brought the squidgy home, and now to get rid of it, Ashley was . . . I didn’t even want to think it. I didn’t care if the mirror made him act this way, like he didn’t care about consequences or conscience. It was my fault, and remorse cut my nasty tone to shreds.

“Not like I held a pistol to his stupid fairy head. Just piss off, okay?”

Charlotte stalked to the gutter and folded her arms, gazing out into the street with her chin in the air, an angry breeze fluttering her white dress.

I swore and kicked at the dirty concrete, my foot still sore, and for eternal minutes we stood there, waiting and avoiding each other. I cracked my knuckles. I tapped my foot. I hopped up and down. Pedestrians shuffled by. Cars passed. Traffic lights flicked from green to red and back to green. Damn it.

Light footsteps skipped down the stairs, and I whirled, my pulse cold.

Ashley emerged, blinking in the sun and scraping his hair back. Heat flushed his skin bright, and his chest heaved with light, short breaths. A drop of blood stained his thigh through his jeans, spreading.

I stumbled up to him, blue all over with embarrassment. “Ash? You okay?”

He tossed a ragged green wad of cash at me, and I fumbled to catch it, sweat smearing my palms. A lot of money. All hundreds. I counted it swiftly. Five grand. The price of our jewels.

Exactly what Danny offered us, no more. And the squidgy was gone.

I looked up, chill shrinking my skin.

Ashley cast me a cold, empty glance, still catching his ragged breath. “Fuck it. It felt good. What you staring at?”

My heart stung, and for once, I had nothing to say.

Notes

Sooo...why not introduce Danny a bit more into the story huh.
What will happen now that Danny has our little squidgy? - Tell me what you think...
Hope you enjoy this little update.

Stay Weird Baby Bats
-Grimm